Recently re-read Spamton's shop dialogue, and he talks about how he went through some sort of change, which he achieved through the act of "communion" with "unintelligible laughter".
Now, what is this "unintelligible laughter" that he somehow communed with to turn into the puppet form we see today? Back in Chapter 2, I just took it as part of his unfocused ramblings, but as of the release of 3+4, we may finally have a culprit... who in hindsight had been with us in the dark since Spamton's debut.
I'm of course talking about IMAGE_FRIEND, or DEVICE_FRIEND... you know, the fucked-up cat apparition that has been stalking us since the Cyber World.
These new chapters have given us irrefutable evidence that this thing is more than just some creepy Spamton-related oddity. And we also got to hear what the entity sounds like, and "unintelligible laughter" would indeed be one way I'd describe it...
Spamton clearly fashions himself after this being in some way. The color scheme of his glassess fooled many people into believing they were a 100% Spamton original (though the fact they were the result of a failed impersonation attempt also helped muddy their relevance), but our FRIEND here seems to be their true origin.
So Spamton has to know of this demon, and his "communion" with it might even be an attempt to gain its aid. After all, his story always had some Faustian bargain undertones to it, except instead of giving up his soul, he gave up his freedom, which might as well be equivalent. In the Sweepstakes' Q&A, he also attributes his physical changes as being a result of "becoming a [Big Shot]".
So: "Communion = Transformation" and "Transformation = Big Shot". Was FRIEND Spamton's phone benefactor all along? That would explain why he imitates its eye color. Another possibility is that the benefactor is still a different character, and Spamton simply turned to the demon for a second chance, leading to his communion. After all, his physical changes are attributed to it, but in his Big Shot era he still looked normal, so the initial calls weren't part of this later deal.
That isn't to say the benefactor COULDN'T be the cat still, just that it might have employed different approaches in different stages of his unfortunate life.
But what did this "communion" even involve? It seems he was shown something, and that something left him scarred. The line before talking about his transformation and communion is actually clearer in the Japanese translation. While the burning could be interpreted as literal in English, nothing is left to the imagination with that version. The only thing burning are his eyes.
かってはタダのメール送信担当。いまは[[待ってまぶしすぎて目が痛いもうやめて]]担当death！
It roughly translates to:
"I used to be in charge of sending free emails. Now I'm in charge of [[wait, it's so bright my eyes hurt, stop it]]!"
(The "death" part of his speech comes from a common mannerism he has in the Japanese localization, where he replaces any "desu" and "dai" in his speech with "death" and "die" respectively since they are pronounced the same in Japan. It isn't relevant to this topic, but it is included in this line so might as well explain lol)
Interestingly enough, it's not the ONLY reference Spamton makes about burning eyes. In fact, this one is crystal clear in the English translation too, and it's his reaction upon seeing our red human SOUL for the first time.
If it burns his eyes in a similar way to his "communion", could it be the thing that FRIEND showed him? Now that we know Darkners aren't unaware of their object status thanks to Tenna being painfully conscious of his role and even his place in the Light World, I can say this can't be related to seeing the world beyond his.
So maybe the light that scorched his retinas was "the light inside [our] SOUL". His ticket to the world beyond: "Heaven".
One last point of connection between Spamton and the cat demon is Queen's Basement itself, the place where we first make contact with the entity. According to the Swatchling guarding the room that used to belong to him, Spamton stopped using it much at some point, and often went to the basement in order to pray.
Pray to who, or what, though? It's easy to assume it was the NEO body, since Spamton regards it as a heavenly thing, and maybe he also prayed to it... but could it be that he tried to get in contact with someone in there too? Or maybe, his prayers to the machine attracted a being that already lurks in such dark locations... in the roots of the very mansion.
Queen's Basement is related to the concept of ROOTS. We know that because the track that plays in the residence's depths is called "Digital Roots". A near-identical place appears later in the final Sword Route board; a dark dungeon with tiles that closely resemble those of the basement in the second chapter, as a track called "BIT ROOTS" plays the whole way through it.
Now, we are not completely certain what any of that means yet, but we do know there is some connection between the word ROOTS and our enigmatic demon cat. For one, it appears in the Queen's Basement, the Digital Roots, and it is prevalent throughout the Sword Route, which leads us to the BIT ROOTS... heck, it's even the reason we got to play through the original game to begin with! The Odd Controller that is mysteriously dropped for us to use does feature its signature colors...
Furthermore, in the secret room that leads to Chapter 4's Egg, we find a Prophecy panel with the image of a small house between two trees, simply titled "ROOTS". Next to it is an Organikk, one of the philosophers of the Second Sanctuary.
This one speaks of a garbled message, describing a pointed tail leading lost children astray.
Lost where the forest would grow, the children followed the pointed tail. The poor children!
Many have drawn connections between that and "The Tail of Hell" from the Prophecy, made out of circles and meant to include a pointed end to it according to unused graphics.
The fact it's made of circles is relevant, due to a pet-raising game that Noelle is very fond of: Catpetterz 2. The cats in that videogame were characterized by their bodies, segmented into circles.
We have seen the demon, and it is definitely cat-like. Its genesis, or simply one of the ways it could have developed, may have been through a special egg mysteriously left in Noelle's care, which eventually went away "due to happiness", unlike how pets in that game usually leave "due to sadness". This one can't be as easily spliced, so here's a link to her post directly. [x]
So, all this to say that FRIEND is definitely connected to Queen's Basement, or just basements and places of deep darkness in general... so Spamton going there to pray to the demon, either knowingly to beg it to give him its help again, or unknowingly by attracting it with his desperation, would make sense.
However, I can see why that wouldn't matter too much to some people. I mean, Spamton having a connection and dealing with FRIEND is a concept many could and already have figured out through a bunch of readily available context clues...
I guess at most, understanding that he might be referring to the fucked-up cat when he mentions "unintelligible laughter" only serves to reinforce it... but what if I told you this was meant to segue into a topic that I've not seen mentioned much at all? Surprising too, since it's the second instance of communion that we know of, also straight from Spamton's mouth.
When asked about the Knight, Spamton will tie them to his previous ramblings about communion, drawing an intriguing connection between the two concepts.
So, the Knight relates to "communion", and so does FRIEND following the previous speculation. However, the demon is the one being communed with, so does that mean the Knight did the same thing as Spamton and got into contact with the occult being? I mean, they appear to share a laugh too! The Knight mockingly laughs before unleashing the Titan on the heroes, and it sounds distinctly like a modified version of the laughter used by FRIEND.
You can hear it here (I've already linked it to the exact minute it happens):
Now, is that truly meaningful, or is it a simple case of reusing assets? Hard to say for sure, but with the concept of communion being tied to both the Roaring Knight and FRIEND, there seems to be a good chance of it being relevant to some degree. But why seek the demon's services? Was it to get something out of it? Or was it simply because they were grateful to it, somehow...?
It is commonplace to believe the Knight to be Dess at this rate, and it's something I am pretty convinced about myself, honestly. And this "communion" might actually help solidify this connection.
Most brainrotted fans (hi) are aware of the "Unused" character that has been rambling alone in a very dark place every time a new chapter releases. Here's all the dialogue so far. I highlighted the relevant text in red to help make it easier to read, except for Chapter 1's since it's neatly to the side and in green.
People have identified it as being Dess, lost in a Dark World (or the Code or something) and experiencing horrible depersonalization. It is also sometimes cited as a reason why Dess Knight is inconsistent, because Dess is clearly stuck, as evinced by this dialogue, so how could she be the Knight somewhere else?
Of course this is assuming that the dialogue revealed each chapter happens at the same time as the chapter that contains them, but the way this person speaks suggests rather blatantly that time doesn't work right wherever they are trapped. They have no idea how long they've been there at all. They don't even need to eat or drink to live. They aren't even sure they count as a living being anymore! What we are reading could easily be an echo of the past, or simply lingering someplace where time isn't as linear as we'd expect.
In any case, there are two parts here that seem curious to me. While stuck in this pitch-black nothingness, the presumed Dess makes mention of a certain scratching noise she can sometimes hear.
This was odd back in Chapter 2, but with the revelations of Chapter 3+4 we can now hazard a guess on who or what the culprit for the scratching noise may be...
The place that this voice is stuck in is one of deep darkness... it's its only defining trait in fact. So maybe our demonic pal could, theoretically, dwell within such a dark domain. We also know its form is incredibly cat-like. It either originates from a cat-raising videogame OR a demon-summoning ritual by Kris and Catti, so regardless, there is always some sort of connection to cats... and as stupid as that sounds, cats are well known for scratching things. It is literally built into their biology and behavior.
It does seem like some sort of leap, doesn't it? And yet, what else could be periodically scratching something at the bottom of such a deep well of shadows? So far, the demon feels like the only origin for the scratching sound that makes sense... and besides, isn't it helping the voice? They are happy something is there. They are thankful to have someone watching over them... I wonder if they'd ask anything to this new FRIEND? Especially should they find out it's a real thing with them in the dark, and not just a random noise.
Maybe they'd even seek communion.
I do personally believe that the Knight, the "Unused" voice, and Dess are all the same character, and I think it would be reasonable that just as Spamton's despair drew it to him, Dess' own despair would draw it to her. It would be especially twisted if FRIEND is the reason Dess got lost in the first place, "Tail of Hell" forshadowing and all, and would work as a parallel to Spamton should it also be the identity of his mysterious benefactor. A demon that leads to misfortune and then preys on its victims when they've lost hope feels so diabolical ahah.
There are some theories floating around regarding the Knight having Kris' real SOUL with them, and since Spamton's "communion" likely involved getting a glimpse of its light, perhaps it was the same for Dess? Maybe it even offered her the actual SOUL, snatched from Kris in some way... after all, it was children plural who were lost and followed a pointed tail, not just Dess alone... and we know for a fact Kris is soulless, and traumatized by something...
I mean, it feels somewhat in line with these lyrics in "Raise Up Your Bat" for one. [Our/Kris'] heart (so SOUL) as her mark in the dark...
So basically, I guess it's possible that Dess communed with the demon cat, and that's how she could rise from the shadowy depths and be reborn as the Knight, free to enact their own will.
(Of course this is all just speculation. This could be proved wrong by Chapter 5 lmao)
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